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Joined: Sep 2001
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Carpal Tunnel
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OP
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296 |
Here are two defintions of "water table":
"Water table \Water table\ (Hydraulic Engin.)
The upper limit of the portion of the ground wholly saturated
with water. The water table may be within a few inches of the surface or many feet below it.
From WordNet (r) 1.6 [wn]
water table
n : underground surface below which the ground is wholly saturated with water: "spring rains had raised the water table" [syn: {water level}, {groundwater level}]"
So, water tables are underground water table tops. Right? And what, then, would you call water that has drenched the land, say, several inches from surface downward? It sounds like those spring rains affect the water table top, but they also affect the surface of the land itself, at least temporarily. In other words, what do you call the depth of saturation of the ground level water?
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enthusiast
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enthusiast
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newbie
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newbie
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Dear WW: you live in a place where water table is seldom a problem when you want
to dig or drive a well. But how would you feel if some industry appeared close to
you and lovered the water table by as much as a thousand feet? When your well
went dry, you would understand the word all too 'well'.
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 1,692 |
Dear WW, Groundwater is the term used for water that is always present below the ground often adjacent to lakes, rivers, the sea shore or else trapped in aquifers. As you surmise the water table does go up and down depending on weather conditions, or if someone, as wwh says, draws off water in your area that causes a local dip in the water table around the pump out, or dewatering, point. I'm far from an expert as my only concern, professionally, is what to do if it contains minerals, such as sulphur, that attack concrete and damage building foundations, tunnels etc. However here is a link that contains some good stuff simply presented. http://www.groundwater.org/GWBasics/gwbasics.htmIf you Google ground water (as two words) you'll find you can access The Ground Water Atlas of the United States. Have fun! dxb
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old hand
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old hand
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Thank Heaven I'm here. Ah hem, ________ ***--> THE ZONE OF SATURATION<-- ***________ Thank you, thank you very much. Go home Ladies, Milo has left the building. 
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858 |
There used to be a set of gags entitled:"The height of insolence". Not a gag, but surely
the height of insolence, LA gets its water from a place about sixty miles to northeast.
LA wastes water horrendously. I see gutters flowing all the time from lawn irrigation
excess. The community near where our water comes from is understandably bitter about
our lowering water table there drastically. But a proposal to reclaim LA waste water and
pumpt it back to its place of origin, there was an outcry that we would then be drinking
"toilet water".
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Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296
Carpal Tunnel
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OP
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296 |
Thanks for the responses.
milum, your "zone of saturation" response led me to find the term I had been looking for in the first place: "zone of aeration."
This is actually fascinating.
1. The top of the "zone of saturation" is the water table. Check. That's easy to understand--how the water table changes height due to varying circumstances.
2. Now immediately above the water table is the "zone of aeration" which is itself divided into three layers:
a. Belt of soil moisture (uppermost)
b. Intermediate belt
c. Capillary fringe (and get this fascinating detail about the capillary fringe: "Belt above zone of saturation in which underground water is lifted against gravity by surface tension in passages of capillary size (i.e., .0025 to .25 cm in diameter)"--and that's really small!
So now I know that the zone of aeration is above the water table with the capillary fringe being directly against the water table. I don't know whether this is always true of the relationship between the capillary fringe and the water table. If the water table drops many feet for some reason, I don't know whether the capillary fringe would drop as much.
I also don't know whether the topmost layer of earth--lets say the uppermost level of surface dirt--is part of the "belt of soil moisture" (uppermost level of the zone of aeration), but I think this belt of soil moisture does go all the way to the surface.
Anyway, thanks again for the input.You guys are great! I think I've got it straight now.
By the way, "iversonsoftware.com/geology" is a good link for geological terms.
Best regards,
WW
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addict
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addict
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toilet water!?!?! all water is toilet water, and drinking water and sea water etc and has been many times over, what a bizarre attitude. http://makeashorterlink.com/?L1B2256D1
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Posts: 13,858 |
Hurrah for the miracle of rain formed by the evaporation of a sea of toilet water.
If only we could distribute it more equably. It rains a couple drops every other
month here. And other people are being flooded.
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